Damn Right Rubenesque

What makes a woman Rubenesque? "Quite frankly, beautiful women come in all shapes and sizes. And today, when most people think of an attractive woman in the fashion sense, they usually imagine a slim-hipped waif with hollow cheeks, narrow shoulders, and a rather unremarkable bustline. This is what commerce has brainwashed modern society into believing is the ideal woman. It is a lie, propagated by marketing forces and fashion designers who use the obsession with a slender female form as a means to earn millions of dollars selling weight-loss products and other health routines. But some of us know better. There is another female form that has been idealized for centuries. She is the familiar hourglass or pear-shaped woman of wide hips, an ample bust, plump cheeks, soft-full lips, and a generally healthy profile of alluring curves and crevasses. She is the Rubenesque Woman. Elegant. Cultured. Educated and Beautiful. In fact, the very word "rubenesque" originates from the adorable plump women so frequently put to canvas by Renaissance Master Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens paintings were so treasured because he painted the lovely women that he saw around him. In Ruben's time, what are today called plus-size, ample-bodied, full-figured, or pleasingly plump, were considered very attractive, if not the most sought after of all women. A firm heavy bust, complimented by shapely hips were physical features that women of Ruben's day could be proud of. In fact, the fashion of those times exaggerated these very features. Even slender women struggled into agonizingly tight-fitting corsets and brassiers that held the mammaries upright so as to enhance their God-given curves."

I love that reference: "Rubenesque". It's much more polite than saying fat, lol. So yes... I would definitely consider myself rubenesque. Does it matter? Sometimes I'm surprised when men find me attractive... but damn! I'm thankful there are a few good curve loving men out there. Or maybe.. size doesn't have a thing to do with it? Are there somethings that transcend appearance? What do you think? Have you ever been attracted to someone "unexpected"? Someone you "normally" wouldn't be... someone outside the typical. Did it surprise? Open you up to more possibilities? Would you NEVER be interested in some who isn't "thin", "socially acceptable" someone you wouldn't "bring home to meet mother"? Hmmm....